WHAT IS A WORMERY AND HOW DOES ONE WORK?Wormeries are an alternative to traditional forms of

compost making

that utilize live worms to "eat" kitchenand garden refuse and turn it into castings. A worm canprocess half of its body weight each day, effectively reducingthe materials by as much as 80%.Wormeriesmake compost in a different, quicker way, thancompost bins or compost tumblers. After the worms eat thematerials you feed them and produce the castings, whichare richer in nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium thannormal compost, you benefit from the results in two ways.First, you can collect the liquid that drips out of the bottomof the wormery, mix it with water, and use it to spray onyour plants leaves. Second, when the castings are finished,you collect them and use them as you would compost inyour garden.Wormeries are very simple. One example is a verticalwormery that is composed of three trays with holes in thebottom of each tray allowing the worms to move from tray totray. To begin, you put bedding in the bottom tray and thenadd the worms. The bedding can consist of shreddednewspapers, mature compost, sawdust, hay, dried leaves,burlap bags, etc. The goal is to have the bedding as similarto the worm's natural habitat as possible, which would belike the moist, dried leaves found in a garden or forest floor. The worms will then migrate towards the food. The top trayholds the food - fresh kitchen and garden scraps that can beput in every day or so and covered with damp newspapers orother bedding. The second tray is the work-in-progress traywhere most of the composting takes place. This compost isnot finished yet. The third tray is where the finished productends up. You can keep a

compost crock

or compost pail in yourkitchen to collect the scraps, but be careful not to provide

the worms with too much at one time or it will just rot in thewormery.When the third tray becomes full, you take the finishedcompost out and rotate the trays, putting the now emptybottom tray on the top and moving the other two trays downa notch. These particular wormeries are on legs and alsoinclude another container at the bottom, with a spigot,where the liquid collects. This is the liquid that, when mixedwith water, is great for your plants. There are other types of wormeries as well. The onementioned above is vertical. You can also find dividedhorizontal wormeries that work much the same way. Thereare also wormeries that aren't divided, but they are a lot lessconvenient to use as you have to empty them out from timeto time to remove the

homemade compost

and aeratethem by hand. The types of material you can put into a wormery aresomewhat different than what you would put in conventionalcompost bin or compost tumbler.First, you need to chop up the materials and give it to theworms often and in small batches. You can add a lot of thesame things, such as plant and vegetable refuse, that youwould put in a normal

garden composter

or composttumbler, but you should avoid heavily acidic fruits, onionsand garlic and, some people say not to use potato peelings.Also, worms don't do well with anything oily. The temperature for a wormery is important. Worms won'tsurvive long in high temperatures. It's best to keep thewormery in a shady spot between 55 to 70degreesFahrenheit (12-21 degrees Celsius). The temperature of thebedding should not drop below freezing or above 89.6 °F (32°C).